Chicago fire department spokesman Larry Merritt said those killed were all from the same residence.
Photograph: Chicago Fire Media

Officials said eight people including six children were killed in a fire in a Chicago neighborhood, early on Sunday morning.

Two other people were hospitalized in very critical condition, Chicago fire department spokesman Larry Merritt said. At least one firefighter was injured and was hospitalized in good condition.

Fire commissioner Jose Santiago told reporters one of the children killed was an infant. Officials did not immediately release the names or ages of the victims. The cause of the blaze was not immediately determined.

“We have not had this in many, many, many years, this amount of fatalities and injuries in one location,” Santiago said.

Officials said firefighters were called around 4am to a house fire in the Little Village neighborhood, which is largely Hispanic. At least two buildings caught fire, one of them a coach house.

Video showed smoke coming from windows on the stone facade of the three-storey building, with flames engulfing the coach house at the back. Police officers helped push a stretcher towards an ambulance while a paramedic performed CPR. One woman lay in the street crying. Someone tried to comfort her.

Chicago fire department spokesman Larry Merritt said those killed were all from the same residence. He said investigators had not found working smoke detectors.